It's Friday night and Sarah Snook's back on telly playing another complicated woman in a thriller about privilege, paranoia, and missing children. Plus David Olusoga's doing what he does best - making you rethink everything you thought you knew about British history.

Table of Contents

Quick Picks: Tonight's Best

  • ⭐ All Her Fault (Sky Atlantic, 9pm) - Snook and Fanning in a gripping child abduction thriller
  • Empire with David Olusoga (BBC Two, 9pm) - Essential viewing on the British empire
  • Prey (Film4, 9pm) - Predator reboot that actually works
  • Unreported World (Channel 4, 7.30pm) - Trump's immigration crackdown

Early Evening: Pre-Watershed Viewing

The Chase - ITV1, 5pm

Bradley Walsh, four hopefuls, one Chaser who's going to destroy their dreams. Someone bottles it and takes the lower offer, Bradley laughs inappropriately, and occasionally someone pulls off an upset. Friday teatime sorted.

Unreported World - Channel 4, 7.30pm

Ria Chatterjee's in LA reporting on Trump's immigration crackdown, and it's as grim as you'd expect. ICE agents getting more brutal and covert, millions living in fear - the dystopian stuff sci-fi warned us about happening for real. It's heavy viewing but important.

Prime Time: Friday Night Drama (9pm onwards)

⭐ All Her Fault - Sky Atlantic, 9pm

Right, this is tonight's big one. Sarah Snook (yes, Succession's Shiv) and Dakota Fanning as wealthy American moms whose lives implode when one of their kids goes missing after a playdate.

When Marissa (Snook) goes to collect her son Milo, the woman who answers isn't Jenny (Fanning) - the mother she thought he was with. Cue panic, police, and everyone immediately suspecting Jenny because that's what rich people do when things go wrong.

What makes it work is the performances. Snook's got that ability to play complicated women who make questionable choices, and Fanning's equally good as the mum who becomes suspect number one. It's all flashbacks showing how they met, privileged-parent politics, and that creeping dread where you're not sure who's telling the truth.

Fair warning: it's emotionally heavy stuff about child abduction and class tensions, but if you're after something gripping to kick off your Friday night, this delivers.

Empire with David Olusoga - BBC Two, 9pm

Fresh from getting murdered on The Celebrity Traitors (RIP), David Olusoga's back doing what he does best - essential history that should've been taught in schools but wasn't.

Tonight he's rewinding to Elizabethan England, then jumping to Newton Slave Burial Ground in Barbados, and back to Bath. It's not just dates and facts - he's showing how the empire shaped everything, and people with personal connections to this legacy share their stories.

If you've watched any of his previous series, you know he makes complex history accessible without dumbing it down. Vital viewing, honestly.

Gogglebox - Channel 4, 9pm

The families are back, reacting to The Traitors finale, some nature doc, and Newsnight's political mess. Mary and Giles will be posh and baffled, the Siddiquis will have brilliant one-liners, and someone's definitely saying exactly what you thought.

Watching people watch telly shouldn't work, but it does. Perfect Friday wind-down.

Prey - Film4, 9pm

Sometimes one good idea saves a tired franchise. Dan Trachtenberg sent the Predator films back to 1719, Northern Great Plains, where an invisible alien warrior faces a Comanche tribe who know how to handle wilderness threats.

Amber Midthunder plays Naru, spotting the danger before anyone else (aside from the French colonialists). It's tense, doesn't require previous films, and actually respects its characters instead of treating them as alien fodder.

How Are You? It's Alan (Partridge) - BBC One, 9.30pm

The series finale, and Alan's learned absolutely nothing. He's visiting the BBC to find out why he got booted from This Time, because of course he can't let it go. The answer doesn't bring closure - this is Alan Partridge, closure isn't in his vocabulary.

It's been the best Partridge outing in ages - a triumphant rebirth that proves Steve Coogan still knows exactly how to play television's most delusional presenter.

Late Night: For Night Owls

The Graham Norton Show - BBC One, 10.40pm

Glen Powell and Colman Domingo chat about The Running Man, Rosamund Pike's promoting her heist film, Jack Whitehall's here for Malice. Graham will get them wine-relaxed, someone will share an embarrassing story, and it's exactly the light relief Friday needs.

Benediction - BBC Two, 11pm

Terence Davies' final film - a cultured biopic of poet Siegfried Sassoon. From WWI trauma (which he opposed, landing in psychiatric care) to the waspish Bright Young Things of the 1920s, plus a candid look at gay sexuality when it dared not speak its name.

Jack Lowden and Peter Capaldi play Sassoon at different ages. Not light viewing, but Davies was brilliant and this is a fitting swan song.

If You're Not Into Heavy Drama

The Simpsons - E4, 7pm

"My Fare Lady" - Marge becomes a taxi driver. Comfort telly you've probably seen before, but sometimes that's exactly what Friday needs. No one dies, nothing gets deep, and there'll be at least three good gags.

Top of the Pops: 1998 - BBC Four, 7pm

BBC Four's running TOTP from September '98. Dodgy fashion, questionable hairstyles, and songs you forgot existed. Pure '90s nostalgia.

What's on Streaming

Sky: All Her Fault on NOW after broadcast.

BBC iPlayer: Full Empire series plus Alan Partridge catch-up.

Netflix: Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein - Oscar Isaac with serious sideburns, Jacob Elordi as the Creature, full gothic horror.

The Viewing Schedule Table

Time Channel Programme What's It About?
5:00pm ITV1 The Chase Bradley vs the Chasers
7:00pm E4 The Simpsons Animated comfort food
7:00pm BBC Four TOTP: 1998 '90s music nostalgia
7:30pm Channel 4 Unreported World Trump immigration crackdown
9:00pm Sky Atlantic All Her Fault Snook & Fanning child snatch thriller
9:00pm BBC Two Empire with David Olusoga Essential British empire history
9:00pm Film4 Prey Predator reboot that works
9:00pm Channel 4 Gogglebox Families watching telly
9:30pm BBC One How Are You? It's Alan Partridge series finale
10:40pm BBC One The Graham Norton Show Celebrity chat and wine
11:00pm BBC Two Benediction Terence Davies' final film

Final Verdict

All Her Fault is tonight's must-watch if you want gripping drama - Snook and Fanning both deliver the goods. But honestly, David Olusoga's Empire series is just as essential, the kind of history that changes how you see everything. And if you've never seen Prey, it's a cracking Friday night film that proves franchise reboots can actually be good.